Spaceborne reflector antenna systems that have been deployed or proposed to date for multiple spot (terrestrial) coverage illumination at widely separated spectral regions of an elevated frequency band (such as Ka-Band as a non-limiting example) have required separate and differently sized reflector structures for their transmitter (T) and receiver (R) subsystems, in order to achieve the same (T/R) beamwidth coverage per spot. If a geostationary satellite based antenna system is intended to provide simultaneous coverage of a plurality of adjacent terrestrial regions, such as the oval regions diagrammatically shown in the beam pattern coverage map of the United States of FIG. 1, the satellite, such as that shown at 10 in FIG. 2, must be configured to support a limited number of reflector antenna pairs (e.g., four pairs A, B, C, D, or eight individual reflector antennas), each transmit--receiver reflector antenna pair comprising two differently sized antenna reflectors and attendant feed subsystems operating at respectively spaced apart frequency bands.
To provide for spot coverage, such as the example shown in FIG. 1, a number of transmit and receive reflector pairs is required. Furthermore, for accurate spot pointing, it may be required that each reflector be mounted to its own dedicated pointing subsystem. Not only does this add considerable mass and volume to an already physically cumbersome hardware and RF interface problem, particularly where the mounting real estate and payload parameters of spaceborne components are inherently restricted, but substantially increases cost of design and space-deployment.